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Jason Spezza officially wants out of Ottawa, according to Senators GM Bryan Murray, and the only thing now is to see what kind of assets can be realized in return.

The guessing here is, just like Vancouver with Roberto Luongo, not nearly as much as what Sens fans may be expecting.

What’s over, of course, is that window of promise that was opened in the fall of 2007 when Ottawa signed both Spezza and Dany Heatley to gigantic, long-term deals.

A small-market team had locked up its two key assets just months after making it to the Stanley Cup final before losing to Anaheim. They had a young goalie in Ray Emery, a world-class defenceman in Wade Redden and a popular enforcer in Brian McGrattan, who was tight with the team’s stars.

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And, in the end, it all amounted to pretty much nothing.

All the Sens can say, really, is that they’ve accomplished more over that period of time than their Ontario cousins in Toronto.

Which really doesn’t count for much at all.

On Wednesday at the NHL general managers meetings, Murray confirmed that Spezza has “requested we give him a chance to go elsewhere,” which pretty much overshadowed all the bits and pieces and minor rule alterations that came out of the actual meetings.

It had been speculated for weeks, of course, that Spezza was on his way out after the Senators failed to make post-season play. Spezza succeeded the much-beloved Daniel Alfredsson as captain, but this season the team was no longer the “plucky Sens” in the same way they had been the previous two campaigns.

Spezza was a curious choice for captain, given that never seemed to be his style as an athlete. He always preferred the flashy to the consistent, the offensive to the defensive, and his offensive game hadn’t been as explosive after he started struggling with injuries, including back woes.

He’s going into the final year of that $49 million extension he signed in ’07, with a cap hit of $7 million next season but an actual salary of $4 million. That salary should help the Sens in the trade market to some degree.

But he turns 31 this week — Friday, to be precise — and hasn’t played a full season since 2008-09. Murray first looked at trading him in the summer of 2011, but then Spezza rebounded with an 84-point season that seemed to indicate his future was in Ottawa.

But a minus-26 on a weak Sens team last year started changing the thinking of both the player and the team. Adding Bobby Ryan and giving up futures to get him turned out not to have the impact that was hoped for, and the thinking now will be to get some of those futures back by trading Spezza in the same way the Rangers recovered depth lost in the Rick Nash deal by trading away Marian Gaborik.

The future in Ottawa now lies in the hands of Erik Karlsson, Kyle Turris, Ryan, Robin Lehner and possibly Mika Zibanejad. Ales Hemsky, a deadline addition, won’t be coming back either. The Sens also have Memorial Cup champion Curtis Lazar and defenceman Cody Ceci coming. But giving up a first-rounder to Anaheim in the Ryan deal leaves a hole.

What might Ottawa get for Spezza, and what teams would be interested?

Well, you might start with the Rangers, who will be looking to replace Brad Richards, likely a compliance buyout this summer. Edmonton could use experienced help down the middle, and Florida GM Dale Tallon has repeatedly said his team is open to adding expensive veteran talent under the new ownership of Vinny Viola. Maybe St. Louis, after a disappointing playoff, might have a spot available.

Spezza has a no-movement clause in his deal and a modified no-trade that allows him to give a list of 10 teams he would be willing to be traded to. This matters a great deal, as you’ll remember Ottawa tried to trade Heatley to Edmonton after the winger had requested a trade, only to have Heatley refuse to go.

Given that Spezza will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2015, this is basically a long rental. So we’re talking a first-round pick and something else — maybe. Spezza did have 66 points last season to rank 14th among all NHL pivots, better offensive numbers than Eric Staal, Paul Stastny and Derek Stepan.

Interestingly, both Staal and Stastny might also be available on the trade market this summer; Statsny because he is an unrestricted free agent.

Ottawa fans, undoubtedly, will be hoping for a much greater return for No. 19, given the status he enjoyed in the nation’s capital and on the roster.

Separating perceived value from actual value in a salary-cap world, of course, has become a tricky process for NHL managers these days.

The tough part for the Senators and their fans is that they did everything right, not only to build their roster but also to protect their top players from being pilfered by larger-market teams.

As it turned out, they just bet on the wrong guys, players who weren’t committed enough (Heatley, Emery) or multi-dimensional enough in a faster NHL (Spezza, Redden) to hold up as core players.

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